Tech MeetingAugust 13, 2008
Members Present: Andy Torris, Orion Weber, Don Miron Simon May, Amanda DeCardy, Mike Romard, Tom Banaszewski Beginning Discussion – 1:1 Overview
09/10 will be a 1:1 year. By the end of November we must have the following components addressed and decisions made: ·platform decision ·curriculum that support a 1:1 laptop program – spontaneous research ·policy ·leadership team role ·infrastructure ·funding ·professional development plan for training
Don’s primary role: Rollout of 1:1 program for SAS. Tech team can put up to 10 extra days in this year. PowerPoint in shared folder
Addressing Questions from Community: 1:1 laptop program is college prep. Major universities are required to have a machine and the training in HS will make students successful higher ed. students. Counselors can research colleges for quotes about the benefits of 1:1 computer use in high school. DFGs (Digital Friends Groups) will be created to support teachers during training as we are looking to get a laptop in every teacher’s hands. Tech integrators can help teachers/principals vamp up their digital leader skills. RFP-Request for proposal discussion and timeline
Phone calls will be accepted up until September 1. A sealed packet must be in SAS hands by September 12. On September 17 the three vendors will present 90 minute presentations to board members and tech team. FYI
September 18th 4:00 Learning 2.008 Conference begins
Sheryl Nausbaum Beach to possibly provide Google Certified Teacher Training after conference. Andy and Amanda will make contacts. PowerSchool Discussion: Monica and Arlette
A dummy school can be set up so that tech people can get test accounts. We are waiting on a new PowerSchool Implementation Manager. Parents can access Edline for the entire school year at the MS level, but the only information will be coming from manual posts by teachers. Andy will be writing a Parent Talk article about Edline going away and teachers should be steered away from using Edline as a communication tool. A train the trainers model will be used to train teachers and tech integrators may not be those teachers. Evangelists for Digital Leadership – Helping Administrators, Parents and Teachers become Digital Leaders ·PTSA/Parent Coffees – Andy needs to know about all of them and tech integrators can provide support as well. Get ready to do parent presentations at the drop of a hat. ACTION: Tech Integrators should have presentations together for good uses of technology. Highlight what is going on in classrooms within the school. ·Web presence – setting teachers and parents up with Netvibes ·Laptop sharing sessions by classroom teachers/integrators to start staff meetings ·Team meeting reports about current events in tech ·Open House ·Parent Conferences ·A wiki will be created to house and share resources and answers to FAQs Acceptable Use Policy ACTION: Tech integrators should work with principals to get a signature from every student on the new AUP at the beginning of the school year. Roles and Responisibilities
Blogs ·Wordpress MU installations and theme tests: Amanda ·New teacher accounts: Division Tech Integrator ·New student accounts: Division Tech Integrator (ex: amanda01pd2010 – first name, number, campus, graduation year) ·Faculty Contact for Troubleshooting: Division Tech Integrator
Moodle ·Updates and third party installations: Don (who will train Warren in Orion’s office) ·New teacher accounts: Division Tech Integrator ·New student accounts: Division Tech Integrator ·Create courses: Division Tech Integrator ·Assign students to courses: Individual Teacher ·Restoring course content: Division Tech Integrator ·Training: Division Tech Integrator ·Faculty Contact for Troubleshooting: Division Tech Integrator
Wikis ·We are currently transitioning to Apple wikis, but we are waiting on software. In the meantime, use wikispaces.com ·Orion will install new wiki software on X server and transition it to the apple server later ·This school year, teachers may continue to use outside wiki hosts but next year all wikis must be housed on our server.
Google Student Email: ·Implementation plan will be discussed on Monday’s tech meeting, using the same account name as their blogs. (ex: amanda01pd2010 – first name, number, campus, graduation year) Blogs will be up in the next two weeks. ·AUP in place and heavy review with kids ·Student training on google applications
Novell Student Accounts ·Tech Integrationist will be responsible for batch adding and creating Novell accounts for students
Ed Portal ·Daily announcements by division. Secretary should post them to daily announcement blog at http://portal2.saschina.org/pudongms/?feed=rss2 for the middle school. This feed will send announcements to the Ed. Portal. For parents, announcements can be posted to mspudong blog with a new category of “daily announcements”. ·For security purposes, we are creating an internal portal at http://teacherportal.saschina.org for teachers at that is password protected that will have handbooks, HR forms, tiecare information.
Agenda Items covered today: Agenda Items for Monday ·Purpose of team ·Schedule for year ·AUP ·1:1 ·Infrastructure ·Learning 2.008 ·Pudong Dedicated Line ·New Standards and Benchmarks rollout ·Atlas help ·Platform Decision ·Roles and Responsibilities of Tech Team Members – review on Monday ·PD Calendar ·Network Printers ·List of proxies ·LCDs ·Personal Blog and Blog Standardization ·How do we document our work? ·Classified Staff Support ·Walkthrough support – File Maker Pro ·Student email ·ELMOs ·Geek On Demands ·Google Calendars transitioning to iCal ·MS Office 2007 Upgrade Online Tutorial on search.saschina.org
Tech Meeting 9:00-3:00, August 13, 2008 By Mike Romard, Pudong Elementary Tech guy
One of three main focuses for the school is the implementation of a one-to-one laptop system. Unsure if grades 4 or 5 will be included. Sacha and Dennis have been asked to show evidence of how it will be significantly (financially) worthwhile to include elementary students.
Technology Education Planning Task Force (TEPTF) members will be provided with 5-10 additional work days (send forms to office for payment for said days?) to complete and proceed through this proposal. We predict it will be intensive at the start of the year to ensure we have proposal that could influence possible tuition hikes and large technology budget orders.
We will use the Apple Server for our wikis (at this time)
Mike is to look at the Mac image as a technician is imaging the MacMinis this afternoon.
On Monday, August 18, all Pudong staff in Puxi. Tech department will have full day together.
September 17, 2008 will be the date, the 2-3 computer vendors will propose their one-to-one proposals to board members, admin and tech teachers.
Amanda inquired about getting us trained as Google Certified teachers – Andy will look into this opportunity for all our tech teachers.
PowerSchool reps, Monica and Arlette, went over the plan for setting it in motion. Members will have a dummy school to tweak and play with to see how it will function. We hope to go ‘live’ with PowerSchool at the end of first semester – when that happens Edline will be replaced by PowerSchool. Andy recommends non-Edline modes of parent-teacher communication for this year, right from the start. So, using wikis and blogs is strongly recommended from the start because we can ‘link’ to them later with PowerSchool. So, effective early support and instruction for staff by Simon and me should be in order. Perhaps even before school begins! So, we are using version 5.3 of PowerSchool – we have six seats for online training with a real person. Monica has lots of experience setting other (often smaller) schools with PowerSchool.
Be ready to have a presentation on ‘Good Usage of Technology’ for PTSA – find teachers doing good tech stuff (it’s more powerful coming from a classroom teacher) and help cue them up and/or have audio/video of their great work. Aim for the ones who have a smartboard. Also maybe have a second presentation on Macs usage in education now – superior software. Maybe also ways communication is going on (and available) in the elementary division. This could be a monthly (10 minute) task for Principal Coffees. Have ES students create recorded skits to be presented to parents – who will eat that up.
We will try to have a wiki (location) where we can share images, presentations and websites for our parent presentations.
Simon, Trudy and I (and the Puxi tech staff and all librarians) will work with Don Miron on a “junior” version of the Educational Portal – so bigger font and mapped links to stuff they are using. So we’ll have to look at what grade levels can use the official portal so we can best determine what should be on the junior version. It should be heavy in images, few words as this is for our youngest users. I’m willing to lead this.
Creating student email accounts with the standard (first name + two digit number beginning with 01 + pd for pudong + graduating year) with Gmail. This will allow them to use google docs in good time. Simon will do this for grades 4 and 5.
The Shanghai American School Educational Portal will be available for students. It will have announcements from Sasha & Dennis, in addition to blogs from students and teachers. In middle school, it’s used as the homepage for computers. What should the homepage be for elementary computers – the one with the big scary eagle? J -- search.saschina.org
Questions:
(a)What is going on with Office 2007 learning amongst staff?
(b)If the curriculum will be finalized this school year (the second big school wide focus) when will the curriculum be published on the SAS website?
(c)When must the decision to include elementary in the one-to-one be made?
(d)Is the decision to get LCDs into all classrooms coming soon – Don mentioned how curriculum is to be more facilitated by technology and professional evaluation has a technology component now as well. Further, Don mentioned teachers are expected to have slides and visuals in their lectures (yet we don’t have the hardware in place yet in Pudong Elementary)
(e)If the members are training staff for PowerSchool, when are we receiving training. And as Don mentioned, this is in addition to other trainings (Office 2007, laptops, Macs, Atlas)
(f)AUP – Acceptable Use Policy – do all students sign it, even our PK3?
(g)Have all LCDs been installed as requested in June?
(h)As we move to a wireless environment, how long will be keep Project Area 4?
(i)Firefox plugins may not be compatible with our MacMinis (Access Flickr) – I’ll look into this when I can. The Mac guy is still imaging the Mac computers.
Members Present: Andy Torris, Orion Weber, Don Miron Simon May, Amanda DeCardy, Mike Romard, Tom Banaszewski
Beginning Discussion – 1:1 Overview
09/10 will be a 1:1 year. By the end of November we must have the following components addressed and decisions made:
· platform decision
· curriculum that support a 1:1 laptop program – spontaneous research
· policy
· leadership team role
· infrastructure
· funding
· professional development plan for training
Don’s primary role: Rollout of 1:1 program for SAS. Tech team can put up to 10 extra days in this year. PowerPoint in shared folder
Addressing Questions from Community: 1:1 laptop program is college prep. Major universities are required to have a machine and the training in HS will make students successful higher ed. students. Counselors can research colleges for quotes about the benefits of 1:1 computer use in high school. DFGs (Digital Friends Groups) will be created to support teachers during training as we are looking to get a laptop in every teacher’s hands. Tech integrators can help teachers/principals vamp up their digital leader skills.
RFP-Request for proposal discussion and timeline
Phone calls will be accepted up until September 1. A sealed packet must be in SAS hands by September 12. On September 17 the three vendors will present 90 minute presentations to board members and tech team.
FYI
September 18th 4:00 Learning 2.008 Conference begins
Sheryl Nausbaum Beach to possibly provide Google Certified Teacher Training after conference. Andy and Amanda will make contacts.
PowerSchool Discussion: Monica and Arlette
A dummy school can be set up so that tech people can get test accounts. We are waiting on a new PowerSchool Implementation Manager. Parents can access Edline for the entire school year at the MS level, but the only information will be coming from manual posts by teachers. Andy will be writing a Parent Talk article about Edline going away and teachers should be steered away from using Edline as a communication tool. A train the trainers model will be used to train teachers and tech integrators may not be those teachers.
Evangelists for Digital Leadership – Helping Administrators, Parents and Teachers become Digital Leaders
· PTSA/Parent Coffees – Andy needs to know about all of them and tech integrators can provide support as well. Get ready to do parent presentations at the drop of a hat. ACTION: Tech Integrators should have presentations together for good uses of technology. Highlight what is going on in classrooms within the school.
· Web presence – setting teachers and parents up with Netvibes
· Laptop sharing sessions by classroom teachers/integrators to start staff meetings
· Team meeting reports about current events in tech
· Open House
· Parent Conferences
· A wiki will be created to house and share resources and answers to FAQs
Acceptable Use Policy
ACTION: Tech integrators should work with principals to get a signature from every student on the new AUP at the beginning of the school year.
Roles and Responisibilities
Blogs
· Wordpress MU installations and theme tests: Amanda
· New teacher accounts: Division Tech Integrator
· New student accounts: Division Tech Integrator (ex: amanda01pd2010 – first name, number, campus, graduation year)
· Faculty Contact for Troubleshooting: Division Tech Integrator
Moodle
· Updates and third party installations: Don (who will train Warren in Orion’s office)
· New teacher accounts: Division Tech Integrator
· New student accounts: Division Tech Integrator
· Create courses: Division Tech Integrator
· Assign students to courses: Individual Teacher
· Restoring course content: Division Tech Integrator
· Training: Division Tech Integrator
· Faculty Contact for Troubleshooting: Division Tech Integrator
Wikis
· We are currently transitioning to Apple wikis, but we are waiting on software. In the meantime, use wikispaces.com
· Orion will install new wiki software on X server and transition it to the apple server later
· This school year, teachers may continue to use outside wiki hosts but next year all wikis must be housed on our server.
Google Student Email:
· Implementation plan will be discussed on Monday’s tech meeting, using the same account name as their blogs. (ex: amanda01pd2010 – first name, number, campus, graduation year) Blogs will be up in the next two weeks.
· AUP in place and heavy review with kids
· Student training on google applications
Novell Student Accounts
· Tech Integrationist will be responsible for batch adding and creating Novell accounts for students
Ed Portal
· Daily announcements by division. Secretary should post them to daily announcement blog at http://portal2.saschina.org/pudongms/?feed=rss2 for the middle school. This feed will send announcements to the Ed. Portal. For parents, announcements can be posted to mspudong blog with a new category of “daily announcements”.
· For security purposes, we are creating an internal portal at http://teacherportal.saschina.org for teachers at that is password protected that will have handbooks, HR forms, tiecare information.
Agenda Items covered today:
Agenda Items for Monday
· Purpose of team
· Schedule for year
· AUP
· 1:1
· Infrastructure
· Learning 2.008
· Pudong Dedicated Line
· New Standards and Benchmarks rollout
· Atlas help
· Platform Decision
· Roles and Responsibilities of Tech Team Members – review on Monday
· PD Calendar
· Network Printers
· List of proxies
· LCDs
· Personal Blog and Blog Standardization
· How do we document our work?
· Classified Staff Support
· Walkthrough support – File Maker Pro
· Student email
· ELMOs
· Geek On Demands
· Google Calendars transitioning to iCal
· MS Office 2007 Upgrade Online Tutorial on search.saschina.org
Tech Meeting 9:00-3:00, August 13, 2008
By Mike Romard, Pudong Elementary Tech guy
Questions:
(a) What is going on with Office 2007 learning amongst staff?
(b) If the curriculum will be finalized this school year (the second big school wide focus) when will the curriculum be published on the SAS website?
(c) When must the decision to include elementary in the one-to-one be made?
(d) Is the decision to get LCDs into all classrooms coming soon – Don mentioned how curriculum is to be more facilitated by technology and professional evaluation has a technology component now as well. Further, Don mentioned teachers are expected to have slides and visuals in their lectures (yet we don’t have the hardware in place yet in Pudong Elementary)
(e) If the members are training staff for PowerSchool, when are we receiving training. And as Don mentioned, this is in addition to other trainings (Office 2007, laptops, Macs, Atlas)
(f) AUP – Acceptable Use Policy – do all students sign it, even our PK3?
(g) Have all LCDs been installed as requested in June?
(h) As we move to a wireless environment, how long will be keep Project Area 4?
(i) Firefox plugins may not be compatible with our MacMinis (Access Flickr) – I’ll look into this when I can. The Mac guy is still imaging the Mac computers.